A Good War Film That Could Have Been Great!

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2018)

1962's The Longest Day is one ambitious, comprehensive war movie. The care that was put into the film making it as realistic as possible is very commendable. With that realism in place, I think the movie suffered just a tad bit. The movie is three hours long, and there are long stretches of build-up leading up to the famous Allied D-Day landing in Normandy. That said, the rest of the movie works well and I really liked the ambition put forth into the film. The film had the largest budget for any black-and-white film, a whopping ten million dollars (a lot for its time). It would hold that title until 1993 when Schindler's List came along. The film made use of many famous actors from all around the globe-48 actors to be exact!
One of the things the movie does differently when compared to other films is that it is divided into different sections. Each section represented a different country and was directed by a person from that country. The main sections were the United States-directed by Andrew Marton, England-directed by Ken Annakin, and Germany-directed by Bernhard Wicki. Every section had their own actors. For example, the American scenes featured John Wayne. There are also some scenes regarding the free French resistance. Unheard of for its time, each of the foreign countries (Germany, France) spoke in their own countries and English subtitles were used. I think this format enhanced the movie as we see what both sides are doing and thinking regarding the war.
It's June 1944 and Europe has been battered with an unusual amount of storms. The Allies made plans to invade France with Normandy as their chosen location. On the other side of the coin, Nazi Germany believes the Allies won't make any move because of the weather and if they do, they would land in the French town of Calais. The Germans think wrong, and General Dwight Eisenhower decides to make the move.
I was impressed with the acting. Usually if 48 renowned international stars would appear in a movie together, things would get rushed. Give credit to the movie-the actors were used well. No one stood out-and that is the point! If I had to single out any actor for their performance, it would be John Wayne. Who can forget John Wayne going into battle on crutches. But listen to some of the actors in the cast: Wayne, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Kurd Jurgens, Henry Fonda, and the list goes on and on.
On the technical side of things, The Longest Day works. Even though there are some long stretches of nothing, there are some great battle scenes. The Normandy landing is quite impressive and so is the parachute drop. This was a film that had assistance from people who actually fought in the war, so they filmed the movie to be real as possible. The sound and the visual effects are rather impressive. The movie was filmed in docudrama style and it would make a great education tool. Despite the impressive look of the Normandy landing, it will not hold well when compared to the D-day landing depiction in 1998's Saving Private Ryan.
Overall, The Longest Day is a solid war movie. It could have been a great movie if it was not hindered by its length. Some tighter editing would have done the movie favors. The movie is based off the acclaimed bestseller by Cornelius Ryan and he also wrote the script which was a good one. I liked the tone of the movie and how ambitious it tries to be. If you like war movies, definitely give this film a shot.
My Grade: B